MONROE - Sen. Ron Johnson toured the Orchid International Monroe plant Wednesday as part of his itinerary around the state during the Congressional Easter break.
Johnson was presented the National Association of Manufacturers' Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence March 25 in Milwaukee. He supported 81 percent of the policies NAM identified as critical to the success of U.S. manufacturing during the 112th Congress.
"I'm certainly appreciative of that," Johnson said. "I think it does reflect that I am highly supportive of a robust manufacturing presence in our economy, certainly here in Wisconsin.
"Wisconsin is a great example of a manufacturing economy, and how you create good, long-term, self-sustaining jobs. So I'm obviously in support of that and know what it takes to incentivize job creation in manufacturing."
Two provisions, authored by Johnson, were approved in the Senate Budget Committee and incorporated as part of the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Resolution, which passed March 22 by a one-vote margin of 50-49. Johnson's amendments direct the CBO to continue to review the costs and taxes in Obamacare as it currently does and to supplement this review with estimates of the cost to taxpayers if 30, 50, or 100 percent of Americans lose their employer-provided care.
On the floor of the Senate, Johnson presented an amendment that would have required any budget resolution brought up in the Senate to provide for the solvency of Social Security and Medicare programs for at least 75 years. The amendment failed, but Johnson said supporters of the amendment intend to "keep bringing that one up." His amendment on requiring a balanced budget after 2022 failed a test vote on the Senate floor, and an amendment to prevent state and local government bailouts was pulled back for presentation in the future.
"I don't think Harry Reid wanted to vote on the no state bailouts," Johnson said.
Johnson opposes the proposed United Nations Small Arms Treaty and doesn't believe federal gun control legislation is going anywhere.
"I don't think we should be governed by UN treaties," he said. "I kind of like U.S. laws governing our actions.
"I'm a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights. I wish there was a magic wand we could wave and prevent all these tragedies from happening or happening in the future, but no law in Washington is going to prevent that."
Johnson said Congress intends to continue pursuing the facts behind the attacks on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
"We are not gaining access to the survivors," Johnson said. " A lot of those folks were contract employees of the CIA. They signed confidentiality agreements, and they're being told they'll never work again if they talk. We're going to pursue that. I had a father of a young Marine, basically, demand answers; I agree he deserves the truth. So we'll continue to pursue that until we get the answers for the American people."
A Johnson proposal to split food stamps, which makes up 80 percent of the farm bill, from the agricultural portion of the bill into two votes for more transparency was voted down by the Democratic Senate in June.
Since then, House Democrats have proposed legislation to expand school lunch programs to weekends and holidays; other school lunch program legislative has been proposed; and officials are expanding a program, StrikeForce, to give more money to projects such as new wells, greenhouses, community gardens, kitchen space and summer meals for low-income school children.
"All these things sound wonderful, but we are running last year a deficit over a trillion dollars," Johnson said. "Probably won't hit that this year, but even so, we have got to get our debt and deficit under control. The risk of not addressing our fiscal situation is far higher spending on interest expense, which will crowd out all these programs people want to expand. We got to get all these things under control."
Meanwhile, farmers are spending billions of dollars on crop insurance, and efforts to forge a new farm bill with dairy reforms remains stalled in Congress, adding to farmers' frustration.
Johnson was presented the National Association of Manufacturers' Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence March 25 in Milwaukee. He supported 81 percent of the policies NAM identified as critical to the success of U.S. manufacturing during the 112th Congress.
"I'm certainly appreciative of that," Johnson said. "I think it does reflect that I am highly supportive of a robust manufacturing presence in our economy, certainly here in Wisconsin.
"Wisconsin is a great example of a manufacturing economy, and how you create good, long-term, self-sustaining jobs. So I'm obviously in support of that and know what it takes to incentivize job creation in manufacturing."
Two provisions, authored by Johnson, were approved in the Senate Budget Committee and incorporated as part of the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Resolution, which passed March 22 by a one-vote margin of 50-49. Johnson's amendments direct the CBO to continue to review the costs and taxes in Obamacare as it currently does and to supplement this review with estimates of the cost to taxpayers if 30, 50, or 100 percent of Americans lose their employer-provided care.
On the floor of the Senate, Johnson presented an amendment that would have required any budget resolution brought up in the Senate to provide for the solvency of Social Security and Medicare programs for at least 75 years. The amendment failed, but Johnson said supporters of the amendment intend to "keep bringing that one up." His amendment on requiring a balanced budget after 2022 failed a test vote on the Senate floor, and an amendment to prevent state and local government bailouts was pulled back for presentation in the future.
"I don't think Harry Reid wanted to vote on the no state bailouts," Johnson said.
Johnson opposes the proposed United Nations Small Arms Treaty and doesn't believe federal gun control legislation is going anywhere.
"I don't think we should be governed by UN treaties," he said. "I kind of like U.S. laws governing our actions.
"I'm a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights. I wish there was a magic wand we could wave and prevent all these tragedies from happening or happening in the future, but no law in Washington is going to prevent that."
Johnson said Congress intends to continue pursuing the facts behind the attacks on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
"We are not gaining access to the survivors," Johnson said. " A lot of those folks were contract employees of the CIA. They signed confidentiality agreements, and they're being told they'll never work again if they talk. We're going to pursue that. I had a father of a young Marine, basically, demand answers; I agree he deserves the truth. So we'll continue to pursue that until we get the answers for the American people."
A Johnson proposal to split food stamps, which makes up 80 percent of the farm bill, from the agricultural portion of the bill into two votes for more transparency was voted down by the Democratic Senate in June.
Since then, House Democrats have proposed legislation to expand school lunch programs to weekends and holidays; other school lunch program legislative has been proposed; and officials are expanding a program, StrikeForce, to give more money to projects such as new wells, greenhouses, community gardens, kitchen space and summer meals for low-income school children.
"All these things sound wonderful, but we are running last year a deficit over a trillion dollars," Johnson said. "Probably won't hit that this year, but even so, we have got to get our debt and deficit under control. The risk of not addressing our fiscal situation is far higher spending on interest expense, which will crowd out all these programs people want to expand. We got to get all these things under control."
Meanwhile, farmers are spending billions of dollars on crop insurance, and efforts to forge a new farm bill with dairy reforms remains stalled in Congress, adding to farmers' frustration.